Directions:
Place all ingredients into blender or food processor. Blend on medium-low for about 3 min, scraping down the sides as necessary.
Will thicken after it has been refrigerated for an hour or so.

Creamy Mango Dressing two ways. First Mango Orange, which is a bit sweeter and creamier. It doesn’t taste like orange though, just bright cheery mango dressing. The Mango Lime is a great vinaigrette that has just the right amount of sweet with a nice amount of tart. It doesn’t taste like lime, it has more of a blended vinaigrette with some sweet. I’ve actually made it using lemon juice instead of lime, but like lime better. Feel free to give lemon a try though!

Directions:

Put all ingredients in your blender and blend medium to high until completely smooth. I let mine blend for around 30 seconds.
Want to know how to best cut a mango? watch this handy 3 second fast motion video.

I’ve had a decent amount of vegan versions of cheese sauce. One of my favorite made from scratch cheese sauces I discovered on VegNews. It’s used for Vegan Macaroni & Cheese it’s so good! I took many of the things I liked about that one and applied it to mine. I changed this to be more of a nacho cheese sauce and made it not so calorie heavy, no added oil and far less fat.
This was fabulous for nachos and I love it over cooked or steamed broccoli & cauliflower. Sometimes I bake cauliflower and then use this as a dip for it, same goes with potatoes! You wouldn’t necessarily think that a sauce that has potatoes in it would be good with potatoes, but it doesn’t taste like potatoes, I promise.

I would call this potato cheese sauce, or potato cauliflower cheese sauce, but there are enough other veggies in it that I feel like that’s not really a fair name. So, veggie nacho cheese sauce it is!! ENJOY!!!

Veggie Nacho Cheese Sauce

2 red or yellow potatoes, chopped

1/4 onion

3 small carrots, chopped

1 cup fresh/raw cauliflower, broken into medium pieces

1/2 red bell pepper

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp onion powder

2 tbs salsa

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 tbs dijon mustard

1 tbs hot sauce

1/8 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1/4 cup raw cashews

1/2 c cooking water

Instructions

In a small pot, bring about 2 cups of water to a boil, then add in first 4 ingredients. If the water doesn’t cover all the vegetables, add some more. Boil until potatoes are tender (poke with a fork) and cooked throughout. Remove from heat and allow to cool for about 5 min.

While boiled veggies are cooling down, load up the blender jar with the rest of the ingredients up to the 1/2 c cooking water. Now you can dump your boiled veggies into a strainer/colander and save some of the liquid OR use a fork and transfer veggies out of the pot into the blender jar and measure out 1/2 cup of the left over boil water and pour it into the blender.

Blend on high for 1 min (longer if you don’t have a high powered blender) so it’s nice and creamy and smooth! It’ll still be nice and hot from the hot vegetables and hot water, perfecto for nachos!!

ready to be blended

p.s. I topped my nachos with chopped tomatoes, chopped red bell pepper, salsa and green onions. I bet it would be good with some beans and avocado too! Maybe guac, maybe some cooked up Beyond Meat Crumbles!? Oh the possibilities of nachos! Wow I’m hungry now!

Past few days I had been having insane pickle cravings…. Pickle this and that! Everything!

The other day I was visiting my grandparent’s house. They had hosted a family BBQ, but I had missed because of work. In the fridge they had a pickle dip, when I saw it I immediately remembered how much I loved that kind of dip pre-vegan days. Of course the stuff in the fridge had yogurt and milk in it, blah! I also noticed that they had Garlic Hummus sitting in the fridge too, so immediately those two as a combo popped up in my head… Pickle AND Garlic AND Hummus? Oh, I’m gonna make that happen!

Pickle Seasoning

2 TBSP + 2 tsp Dill Seasoning

1 TBSP +1 tsp Dried Parsley

1 TBSP Garlic Powder

1 TBSP Onion Powder

1 tsp Lime Salt

1 tsp Himalayan Salt

1/2 tsp Black Pepper

1 tsp Turmeric

*You will have some leftovers of Pickle Seasoning and you can use it for ANYTHING! I sprinkle it over popcorn. Mmmm! Be Creative 😉

Share it:

Like this:

This can be used as a pizza (flavored) dip, or a spread. Of course, it’s vegan and gluten free, but it’s also raw, nut free and oil free. It goes great as a dip with random veggies. I like it with bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers and celery. Of course it’s fabulous with crackers or chips as well.

Tonight I made a raw pizza and used this as the spread over the crust and then topped it with a bunch of pizza type veggies. It was perfect for it! Plus, quite easy to make. So of course, had to make sure to share the recipe here!

Ingredients

1 cup sundried tomatoes (not in oil), soaked in 2/3-3/4 cup water

2/3 cup saved sundried tomato soak water

1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds (shelled)

1/4 cup raw pepitas/shelled pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1/3 cup fresh basil

3 cherry tomatoes

juice from 1/2 lemon

1 TBS coconut aminos

1/2 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Instructions:

Soak the sun dried tomatoes in warm water for about 20 min, longer if you have really hard tomatoes. Save the soak water because you will use it in the recipe. Put all the ingredients into a food processor or blender. Process until everything is all mixed in. It will be mildly thick. Feel free to add more soak water if you want it thinned out more.

____________________________________________________________

Thought I would share my raw pizza process too. I got a wRAWp raw pizza crust this week at Mother’s Market (Grocery Store here in Orange County) and was excited to test em out! Random sidenote: wRAWp is a SoCal company. I liked the crust, it certainly doesn’t taste like real pizza, but I was impressed at how well it held up, while not being hard/crunchy. I thought that after spreading the pizza dip over it and letting it sit for over 30 min that it would begin to get semi soggy. Nope. Held up just great.

When you make a RAW pizza, you want to make sure you slice your veggies thin, it makes it easier to eat and seem more like ‘pizza’. On my pizza I used the pizza spread, torn massaged kale, red bell pepper, grape tomatoes, shallot and basil then sprinkled some oregano and black pepper over the top.

People often wonder how I get my kale salads to turn out so much differently than they do. So, I made a little video of what I do to the kale when I make a salad.

Creamy Dill Dressing

1/2 cup cashews, soaked for at least 1 hour

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup almond milk (or more water)

1/2 TBS apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 TBS stone ground mustard

2 TBS nutritional yeast

1/4 cup fresh dill (doesn’t need to be chopped)

Toss everything except the dill in the blender and blend on medium high until smooth, I ran my blender for 1 min 30 seconds. Then toss in the dill and blend on lowest setting for 20-30 seconds. It makes it so you can still see the dill specks in it. You can blend it all the way in and make the dressing all green, only difference is the look.

Salad Ingredients

1 bunch green kale, torn

1/2 cup cooked quinoa (1/4 uncooked quinoa cooked in 1/2 cup water)

1 pear, seeded and chopped

2 tomatoes, diced

1 shallot, sliced thin

1/2 cup cucumber, small dice

2 TBS dried cranberries

coconut bacon, sprinkled over top

avocado, optional

Creamy Dill Dressing

Instructions

This is how I make it, but really however you feel like putting it together is fabulous.

Tear up the kale in to small pieces in a large bowl. Toss kale in 3 TBS or so of dressing, then add quinoa and toss again. This makes it so that the quinoa sticks to the kale. Next put all the other ingredients over the top (except the coconut bacon), add another 2-3 TBS dressing and toss again. Plate and serve topped with coconut bacon.

I have been playing around with a sweet hummus recipe. Not because hummus isn’t great on it’s own and I don’t have enough dips and sauces in my life, but because I wanted something that could be used as a fruit dip that wasn’t the usual stuff. As a kid my favorite fruit dip my mom made using marshmallow fluff and cream cheese. So not good for you!! This dip is absolutely NOTHING like that. It’s also not just a veganized version for an unhealthy way to eat fruit. I do LOVE to dip stuff, I think I get that from my mom, having a sauce or dip with stuff just makes it so much better for me.

This started out as snickerdoodle hummus, then kind of morphed into a cookie dough type dip.

Toss everything except the chocolate chips in your food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Either pulse in chocolate chips, or lightly mix them in once you pour hummus into a bowl. The hummus will be warm and it will start to melt them. Cover and chill in the fridge for a couple hours. It’s better cold. But not necessary.

I went to a baby shower today, it was Mara’s, and it was all vegan all gluten free. FABULOUS! It wasn’t potluck, a few of us made the dishes. I brought a few things that all were received well, and finished off. That’s always a good thing! After many requests for this cheese recipe I said it would be easier if I just shared it on here. In some of the pictures you will see 2, but I halved this recipe, so it only makes one. And, without further adue… ENJOY!!

Put cashews in a container and fill with filtered water about 3 inches of water over the cashews.
10-12 hours, drain the water and rinse out with cold water. Rinse and dump a few times to get the cashews all cleaned off. Fill with filtered water again, a bit over the top of the cashews. Let them soak again for another 6-8 hours (could be 12 if you are busy) the time isn’t real strict. You are just trying to make sure they are completely soaked and softened, makes the cheese nice and creamy. Even if you have a high power blender.
After they are done soaking (total 16-24 hours), drain the liquid, rinse out again using cold water, rinse and drain until water is clear.

In your blender, combine cashews, coconut oil, lemon juice, sea salt and water. Blend on high for 45 seconds or so, stop, scrape down the sides and lid. Blend again on high, for 2 minutes.

Scoop out the cashew mixture into the center of an 8-10 inch triple layered
piece of cheese cloth (3 pieces of cheese cloth on top of each other), roll the cheesecloth over the cheese to cover it completely forming it into a ball or loaf.
Twist the ends of the cloth and secure with rubber bands or twist ties. Set it in the strainer over a bowl and let it stand for 18-24 hours at room temperature. After about 8 hours I usually add a folded up paper towel under it to help soak up some of the slight liquid.

After the (fermenting) time is up, discard the excess water (and paper towel if you used it) and place in the fridge, for at least 3 hours.

(*You can also do the following steps with the cranberry and dill and then refrigerate afterwards for several hours*)

Chop the cranberries and dill, the smaller the better.
On approximately 12” x 12” piece of parchment (or wax paper), sprinkle dill loosely, most in the middle. Place the cheese in the center on the dill, letting it stick to the cheese. Flip it over to get dill on the other side. Use your hands and lightly press the dill all over the cheese. Do the same thing for the cranberries so that both the dill and cranberries are all around the cheese.
Fold the edges of the parchment paper over the cheese, place in the fridge letting it rest on the side with the most layers. If you want to dig in to it immediately that’s perfect too!
I recommend a sturdy cracker. Van’s or Mary’s are good choices.

This is one of the BEST pesto’s I’ve ever had. It has a buttery flavor to it, I guess it’s something about the basil oil and pumpkin seeds. It makes an awesome mix to go with pasta (be it a raw version of pasta or not). It also is fabulous on a sandwich or just with crackers. Either way, at our housee we adore it. Plus it’s alkaline, raw, simple to make and really really good to eat.

I recommend putting the garlic cloves into the food processor first and turn it on until basically all of them have stopped getting spun around by the blade. Then scrape down the sides and put in the basil. Pulse a few times to get a rough chop, then add in the rest of the ingredients. Some people like their pesto runnier than others, so if you like it more runny, feel free to add in more olive oil.